AP PHOTOS: A taste of school lunches around world

A school lunch featuring a grilled cheese sandwich on whole grain bread is served with a southwestern-style corn salad, fresh carrots and either canned pears or apple sauce Monday, May 5, 2014, at Mirror Lake Elementary School in Federal Way, Wash., south of Seattle. On this day, students could choose between this lunch or a green salad entree option featuring low-sodium chicken, a whole-grain roll, fresh red peppers, and cilantro dressing. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Baani, a 5-year-old Indian schoolgirl, eats her lunch prepared by her mother, consisting of flatbread, a turnip dish and mangoes, at a school in Jammu, India, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. Most countries seem to put a premium on feeding school children a healthy meal at lunchtime. U.S. first lady Michelle Obama is on a mission to make American school lunches healthier too, by replacing greasy pizza and french fries with whole grains, low fat protein, fresh fruit and vegetables. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Two lunch trays at a primary school in London are served during a lunch break on Tuesday, May 6, 2014. The meal choice at right consists of pasta with fresh broccoli and slices of bread, and seasonal fresh fruit. At left are vegetable chili with rice and fresh broccoli, sponge cake with custard, and a banana. The drink options are milk and water. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

A recent study suggests that something as simple as changing the placement of a salad bar could help millions of kids make healthier choices on their own. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) — A school lunch salad entree option featuring low-sodium chicken, a whole-grain roll, fresh red peppers, and cilantro dressing is assembled in a lunch basket at Mirror Lake Elementary School in Federal Way, Wash., south of Seattle, Monday, May 5, 2014. On this day, students could choose between this salad and a more traditional lunch of a grilled cheese sandwich on whole grain bread served with a southwestern-style corn salad, fresh carrots and either canned pears or apple sauce. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Milagro Ramos, a student at the Angela Landa elementary school, spoons up rice from her lunch tray, which also contains a chicken croquette, a piece of taro root and yellow pea soup in Old Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. Milagro brought fried plantains, lower left corner of her tray, and an orange drink from home. The children provide their own drinks. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

A student's lunch box brought from home sits on display at an elementary school in Quito, Ecuador, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. The lunch consists of a sandwich of ham, cheese, tomato and lettuce, a boxed oatmeal drink, and an apple. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) — A student’s lunch box brought from home sits on display at an elementary school in Quito, Ecuador, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. The lunch consists of a sandwich of ham, cheese, tomato and lettuce, a boxed oatmeal drink, and an apple. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A school lunch at El Caminet del Besos kindergarten is pictured in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. The lunch is composed of cream of vegetable soup, pan-fried breast of veal with salad, a piece of bread, an orange or banana and water. Most countries seem to put a premium on feeding school children a healthy meal at lunchtime. U.S. first lady Michelle Obama is on a mission to make American school lunches healthier too. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

A public elementary school girl buys a pancake for her lunch on the street in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. In Indonesia, not every student can bring a lunch box to school. Public school students buy their lunch at school cafeterias or food stalls on the nearby streets. The price for one pancake is about one U.S. cent. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

French chef Xavier Lebeau poses with a plate of Quenelles de Brochet (pike fish) with Green Haricots and Champignons de Paris (Paris mushrooms) at the Saint Pierre de Chaillot school in Paris, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. In France, school lunch is an art form: hot, multi-course and involving vegetables. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Bowls of salad are ready to be served, Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at Delcare Edu Center, a local kindergarten and child care center in the business district of Singapore. Everyday, lunch is prepared by the school's kitchen staff, who take great care to promote healthy eating in the selection of their ingredients and methods of food preparation. The children in this school are also taught to accept a wide variety of food and a weekly menu is prepared by the principal each school term. Healthy snacks consisting of fruits, home-made bread, natural beans, soup and barley are served between meals. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) — Bowls of salad are ready to be served, Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at Delcare Edu Center, a local kindergarten and child care center in the business district of Singapore. Everyday, lunch is prepared by the school’s kitchen staff, who take great care to promote healthy eating in the selection of their ingredients and methods of food preparation. The children in this school are also taught to accept a wide variety of food and a weekly menu is prepared by the principal each school term. Healthy snacks consisting of fruits, home-made bread, natural beans, soup and barley are served between meals. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Mamadou Diagana, shows his fried donuts as he makes his way to school in Bamako, Mali, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. In Malis capital, the majority of students go to neighborhood schools and return home from noon to 3 p.m. so they can eat lunch with their families. The they then return to class until 5 p.m. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)

CORRECTS SPELLING OF FRANK - A school lunch consisting of rice, salmon, ratatouille, a slice of bread, a salad with celery and carrots, and an orange and donut is laid out on a tray at the Anne Frank school in Lambersart, northern France, on Tuesday, May 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler) — A school lunch consisting of rice, salmon, ratatouille, a slice of bread, a salad with celery and carrots, and an orange and donut is laid out on a tray at the Anne Frank school in Lambersart, northern France, on Tuesday, May 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

The a school lunch of an omelette, vegetable soup, banana yogurt and water are served at the Chiquitin kindergarten in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. Most countries seem to put a premium on feeding school children a healthy meal at lunchtime. U.S. first lady Michelle Obama is on a mission to make American school lunches healthier too. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

A plastic plate containing an empanada of meat, milanesa (meat covered with egg and bread), and potato is set on a table where children ages 2 to 5 years old have lunch at a school in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. In Argentina, most children have been able to count on some relative providing a hot homemade lunch before or after they attend public school, which is generally taught in four-hour shifts in the morning or afternoon. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Sri, a house maid, shows a lunch box she prepared for her employer's child, at an elementary school in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. The lunch consists of rice, meatball soup, and tofu and vegetables. Most countries put a premium on feeding school children a healthy meal at lunchtime. The new American standards for school lunches are giving kids in the United States a taste of the good life already experienced by school children around the world. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim) — Sri, a house maid, shows a lunch box she prepared for her employer’s child, at an elementary school in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. The lunch consists of rice, meatball soup, and tofu and vegetables. Most countries put a premium on feeding school children a healthy meal at lunchtime. The new American standards for school lunches are giving kids in the United States a taste of the good life already experienced by school children around the world. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

(1/15)

Share This Gallery:

DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP
Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama is on a mission to make American school lunches healthier by replacing greasy pizza and french fries with whole grains, low fat protein, fresh fruit and vegetables.

The Associated Press helps you compare her efforts in the United States with what kids are eating around the globe by sending photographers to see what kids in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America ate for lunch this week.

The new American standards are giving kids in the United States a taste of the good life already experienced by school children around the world. Most countries put a premium on feeding school children a healthy meal at lunchtime.

Many kids go home to eat lunch with their families or bring a lunch cooked by their parents.

Although few schools sell lunch, snacks are available around the world. In many places those snacks are as unhealthy as treats in the United States: fried doughnuts in Mali and Pakistan, candy in the West Bank, fried chicken nuggets in France.

American children are more likely to eat a lunch made in a school cafeteria, although other countries are starting to adopt this practice as more mothers go to work outside the home.

In France, lunch is an art form: hot, multi-course and involving vegetables. While their mothers were at work Tuesday, children in Lambersart in northern France were served ratatouille, salmon, rice, a chunk of baguette and an orange.

Healthy lunches are offered in public school cafeterias in the United Arab Emirates but the children of foreigners attending private schools get fancier, multi-cultural offerings like American barbecue, Indian curries and Asian noodles.

Cuba provides all students with free school lunches, typically featuring rice, beans, another source of protein like a hard-boiled egg, a vegetable such as a sliced tomato and arroz con leche for dessert. Many parents send their children off to school with extra vegetables or a piece of fish or chicken to complement the free lunch.

Fresh food is also on the menu at the DEL-Care Edu Center in downtown Singapore, where students are fed breakfast, lunch and even dinner if their parents work late. Typical lunches include spaghetti marinara, fish slices, chicken casserole or lotus root soup.

Kids usually bring a home-cooked meal to school in Pakistan, where school leaders check lunch boxes for junk food and admonish parents to keep things healthy. A typical sack lunch at The Bahria Foundation school in Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital, Islamabad, includes eggs, chicken nuggets, bread, rice or noodles. Some also include leftovers such as minced mutton and vegetables cooked the night before.

Ecuadorean children bring sack lunches to school, typically a sandwich, juice, yogurt, cookies and piece of fruit.

In Federal Way, Washington, schools have embraced the first lady’s lunch campaign for the approximately 16,000 children who get a school-made lunch each day.

At Mirror Lake Elementary, about 20 miles south of Seattle, students ate grilled cheese sandwiches, corn salad, fresh carrots, apple sauce and low-fat milk on Monday. The bread was whole grain, the cheese low fat and low sodium, the carrots fresh and fruit the only dessert.

Fried food, white bread, sugar-laden desserts and overcooked vegetables have all but disappeared from the American school menu.

Anything kids can pick up with their fingers is popular in the younger grades. High school students enjoy some spicy and exotic choices, especially Asian flavors, says Federal Way chef and dietitian Adam Pazder.

___

AP reporters Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali, Zeina Karam in Beirut, Lebanon, Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Israel, Sameer Yacoub in Baghdad, Iraq, Nasser Nasser in Ramallah, West Bank, Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Angela Charlton in Paris and Anjum Naveed in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Delores Ochoa from Ecuador, and photographers Wong Maye-E in Singapore and Franklin Reyes in Havana, Cuba, contributed to this story.

___

Follow AP photographers on Twitter:

–https://twitter.com/AP/ap-photographers/members